Interboro students mark 50th anniversary of assassination of President Kennedy

Advanced Placement U.S. History teacher Tony Meccariello discusses the assassination of JFK on Friday at Interboro High School.

PROSPECT PARK — Students in Tony Meccariello’s Advanced Placement U.S. History classes at Interboro High School took a day out of their normal course of study Friday to discuss one of the most infamous and lasting events in American history.

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the students discussed the fallen executive’s life and legacy. The challenge facing Meccariello was how to relate the subject to students whose parents are even too young to remember the assassination.

“It is a challenge to only have a 47-minute lecture on the whole issue,” Meccariello said between classes Friday. “We could design an entire course about just his assassination.”

Meccariello used some pop culture references to connect with the students, showing a clip from the popular 1990s sitcom “Seinfeld” that itself parodies the Oliver Stone film “JFK.” He also introduced some contemporary news reports and images, like a political cartoon published in the Nov. 22, 1963, evening edition of the Chicago Sun-Times called “Lincoln Weeping,” depicting the slain emancipator slumping in the Lincoln Memorial.

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It is also hard for Meccariello to explain why the assassination, even 50 years later, is still etched so deeply in the minds of those who experienced it because he himself is just 30 years old. He was shocked to learn that most students’ parents weren’t alive at the time.

“Why is he kind of in your grandparents’ minds? Why is he held in such high regard?” Meccariello asked his students.

He explained Kennedy’s use of the media, especially television, to endear himself to the nation.

“The people who lived through it look at it through a different lens than we do,” he said, explaining that the generation alive during the 1960s had mostly survived the Great Depression and World War II. Kennedy, just 43 when he became president, was seen as the hallmark of a new era. His assassination brought an abrupt end to that movement.

“Here comes this young, handsome guy onto the stage,” Meccariello said. “They saw hope in him and then when he’s cut down, their hopes are cut down, too.”

The students discussed what they knew about Kennedy and the assassination. They were, of course, aware of his killing, and mentioned things about the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis and his wife and children.

The Civil Rights Movement was also something brought up by the students. Kennedy introduced an early version of the Civil Rights Act during his tenure, and shortly before his murder, made a speech espousing the moral obligations of the nation to promote equality.

“It was only through his assassination that he became a martyr for that cause,” Meccariello said. Following his death, the legislation was passed by Congress.

When asked about revelations about his personal conduct, the students were ambivalent about passing judgments on his extracurricular activities.

“We’re not judging him on his personal life. We’re judging him on his presidency,” one student said.

“I don’t think that takes anything away from his performance in office,” another said.

Meccariello had the students read a magazine article that touched on many aspects of Kennedy’s life, including his military service, family life and policy positions, then asked them how they would rank him among all the presidents.

“Does he belong on Mount Rushmore?” he asked.

“He’s up there,” one student replied. “He obviously didn’t have as much to deal with as the first few presidents did in setting up the country.”

“He was flexible to the times,” another said.

The overwhelming aspect of his legacy for many Americans, less half of whom where alive at the time of his death, is his assassination.

“His assassination strikes at our fear that no one is safe,” said one student. “That anyone can be killed at anytime.”

Jason Kohlbrenner, a 17-year-old junior from Prospect Park, said the only event that compares to it is the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.

“9/11 was similar for me because it just affected the whole country,” Kohlbrenner said.

The lecture for him was engaging because he is intrigued by the mystery surround Kennedy’s death.

“It’s interesting to me because I really want to find out more that happened,” he said after his second period class. “I don’t think we’ll ever find out what happened, not for a long time anyway.”

On Monday, the AP US History students will return to their normal coursework, picking back up in the 1840s and President Millard Fillmore. But for 47 minutes on Friday, these teenagers were transported back in time a half century to try and get an idea of what it feels like to lose a president.